On August 23 rd The Cluster Forum, organized by the Lithuanian Cluster Association, took place. There the most relevant issues and news for the Lithuanian clusters were discussed.

Laimutis Paškevičius, President of the Lithuanian Cluster Association, presented what is being solved in the special work group of the Ministry of Economy. This work group makes proposals for the formulation and implementation of Lithuanian cluster policy, ensuring the monitoring and evaluation of clusters. The participants of the event presented the updated concepts of the modern cluster, clusterization and cluster initiative, defined the goal and tasks of clusterization development. This week the work group will begin examining one of the most difficult and most important issues: cluster maturity categories and criteria for categorization.

Possibility to get personalized study details

The project manager of the Lithuanian cluster study which was initiated by the Agency for Innovation, Technology and Science (MITA), director of the Institute of Change Research, Dr. Erika Vaiginienė also emphasized the complexity of cluster maturity. While presenting the undergoing study, she urged cluster representatives and coordinators to actively fill out questionnaires and participate in qualitative interviews. She reminded that it is important not to misrepresent information provided: the aim is to reflect the actual clusterization situation in Lithuania. Dr. E. Vaiginienė promised to send personalized research information to clusters who would participate in the study and will express their desire to compare themselves with others.

New communication platform

MITA cluster development coordinator Vidmantas Vaitulevičius introduced a new cluster communication and information platform klaster.lt. He discussed its advantages and opportunities for every individual cluster to publish their news, promote events, self-manage contact information of their members on the website and so on. The website was created and is administered through the MITA-coordinated project “Promotion and Development of Innovation Networks” (InoLink), which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The “InoLink” project is carried out in partnership with the Lithuanian Innovation Center (LIC). “Currently, the database of active clusters in Lithuania is updated. MITA creates and sends logins to the new site for active ones. We hope that the site will become the main source of news for Lithuanian clusters and will successfully represent the potential of Lithuanian clusters for interested foreign partners”, said Jolita Razumienė, Project Manager of “InoLink”.

Photovoltaic Technology Cluster Coordinator Dr. Juras Ulbikas presented the success story of the Photovoltaic Technology Cluster, which can be read here on klaster.lt website.

The event was filmed, and you can view video material on the Facebook page of the Lithuanian Cluster Association.

About the Cluster Forum

The Cluster Forum is regularly organized by the Lithuanian Cluster Association together with partners MITA, the Ministry of Economy, Lithuanian Innovation Center, Lithuanian Business Support Agency, Enterprise Lithuania and Business Hive Vilnius.